Zoom Meeting - Book Sizes, DNS, Beta Feedback

Date: March 4, 2026 Attendees: Sheri Dudley, Bert Carroll Format: Zoom

Agenda

• Beta feedback review — Sheri confirmed fixes look good
• One-pager / sales doc feedback
• Physical book inclusion in Premium tier
• PDF book size formats for printing
• Google Workspace DNS verification
• Signal page access issue

Key Decisions

Beta Fixes Verified

Sheri confirmed all bug fixes look correct. Her sister tested the book and "was able to see all the things, and it looks the way we were expecting it to."

One-Pager Sales Doc

Sheri reviewed and likes it. Main open question: whether to include a physical book in the Premium tier or keep it digital-only.

Physical Book in Premium Tier

Decision: Deferred — needs more thought

• Sheri sees value in including a physical book at the top tier for clarity ("no gotchas")
• Challenge: printing costs vary by photo count, page count, and format
• Option discussed: $20 credit toward printing at Premium tier instead of including the book outright
  • Sheri likes this approach — covers a basic book, upgrades cost extra
• Bert: need to verify API integration with print partner and ensure no financial exposure
• Passthrough payment integration needs research (apply partial payment, customer pays remainder)
• Action: Sheri to think on this; Bert to research passthrough pricing with Lulu/Blurb

PDF Book Size Formats

Decision: Support multiple sizes for PDF output

Current PDF is hardcoded to 8.5x11 (US Letter), which doesn't match common print book formats. Sheri discovered this through hands-on printing research.

Selected sizes (agreed):

Rejected sizes:

• 5" x 5" — too small for a tribute book
• 8.5" x 11" — "size of a notebook, awkward for a book that's not a notebook" (Sheri)
• 12" x 12", 13" x 11" — too large, coffee table only

Implementation plan:

• Owner selects book size during purchase (Premium tier) or on dashboard
• PDF generates at correct dimensions with preview
• Layout editor deferred to v2
• Sheri to send Bert a link to printer spec/margin documentation she found helpful

Google Workspace DNS

Decision: Completed on the call

• Sheri shared screen, switched to manual DNS verification
• Bert added the verification record in Cloudflare
• Domain verified successfully

Signal Page Access

Sheri couldn't access /signal after RLS changes. Turned out she needed to log in first, then navigate to /signal. Added navigation links between admin pages (Dashboard, Admin, Signal, Docs) as a fix.

Action Items

Other Notes

• Bert out of town for spring break (back Monday March 10), but available by phone/message — "working vacation"
• Sheri's beta testers are responding positively to the concept
• Bert may attend Saturday morning coffee group before leaving, or leave Friday evening

Cleaned Transcript

Bert: Did you get the page that I sent you?

Sheri: Yes. I looked at everything that you sent me with all the updates and changes. It looks good. I had my sister go and hit her book and look at it, and she was able to see all the things, and it looks the way we were expecting it to. So awesome.

Bert: So it's no longer a crazy place. Good, good.

Sheri: Do you have anything on your end from those follow-ups before I jump into mine?

Bert: Did you see the one-pager, like the little sales doc?

Sheri: I did.

Bert: And thoughts on that?

Sheri: I like it. I think it's good. The thing that is going to be a challenge for me is figuring out whether I want to go in the direction of including the physical book or not. The explanations and everything else is helpful. As a consumer, I think there's something obvious and leaving no room for confusion if the top tier includes an actual physical book. I do like that for simplicity's sake because I want everything to be absolutely no gotchas. The challenge is that pricing varies so much on photos, not photos, how many pages. It would be hard to figure out how to do that unless it's sort of a basic model and then you can do upgrades and customizing for extra. But as a consumer, do you feel like having the included book at the top tier is a good customer-facing thing? Or do you think it doesn't particularly matter?

Bert: I'd look at the margin on it. I would try to understand how much a book is going to cost within certain parameters. Does the $69 cover what you're going to provide plus the actual printed book from whatever provider, at an acceptable margin, regardless of whether there's a range? I think the answer is probably yes. The other option is you could do like a $20 credit towards the book.

Sheri: I'm intrigued by that. I kind of like that. It's similar to the idea of, if you want something with all the bells and whistles, you're going to have to pay extra. But if you want something fairly simple, that's essentially going to cover the cost of your book.

Bert: We'd have to figure out how to transfer the money towards it. We would write an API to use their tools and pay for it. If they give me the ability to apply a certain amount of payment and then allow them to pay the rest, that would be ideal. I would want to make sure to harden anything that would have potential egress of real money from our system.

Sheri: I need to think on that a little bit. What came up as I was talking to people testing this is the clarity of the language, and also what is the value for going with premium versus standard if you're not getting a hard book.

Bert: In a perfect world, I'd say yeah, I want a book. But we have to figure out if we can get a partner that we can do that with in a way that doesn't leave us exposed and gives us the quality you want.

Sheri: Along with that, the standard PDF that it generates right now doesn't appear to fit well into what the different book printing people I've been looking at. It looks like it'll need to be formatted a little different to match their book sizing and options. Right now it's doing a standard 8 by 11. There aren't as many options at that size. The smaller books like 5x7 or 6x9 are more traditional for this type of book.

Bert: Why don't I make it where you get to choose what size you want, like just have a dropdown for what size book it is and I'll let you preview it.

Sheri: Yeah, because I think 5x7 or 6x9 is more traditional for this type of book. That seems to be what fits well. And then we don't get hung up in the process because I've spent many hours now getting hung up in printing processes.

Bert: This is the stuff that is where the rubber meets the road, when you figure out where the friction actually is. I love that because it's like I'm getting somewhere — just push it until it breaks.

Sheri: And the breaking is going to be if Sheri suddenly has 15 customers who want a book and has to send them all to print on her own.

Bert: I want you to have that problem. But not in a bad way. I'll be your support for this. If I can get this to print, I'm exploring it right now. I think that's an easy fix and I can probably have that ready maybe by the end of the time we're talking.

Bert: I have solved for it to look good on a computer screen and on a smartphone. Now we just need to look at other formats because if it's a printed book, what dimensions are they. I'm doing some research on the two sizes you just described, and what I would probably do is when they make the initial purchase, instead of just "this is the premium," make them choose the book size right then.

Sheri: Yeah, because it really does change everything as I've learned in my foray into printing.

Bert: We're thinking pocket, standard, and full page — 5x7, 6x9, and 8.5x11. Or we could do 5x7, 6x9, 8x10, and 8.5x11.

Sheri: I would go with 8x10, just because 8.5x11 is the size of a notebook, which to me is an awkward size for a book that's not a notebook.

Bert: Were you looking at Lulu print?

Sheri: I was in Lulu and I was in Blurb.

Bert: They've got a 5x8, a 5.5x8.5 from Blurb. So this is good because now we've identified that my guess was wrong. [reads Blurb sizes] Mini square 5x5, small square 7x7, standard portrait 8x10, standard landscape 10x8, large square 12x12, large landscape 13x11. [reads Lulu sizes] 6x9 most popular, 5.5x8.5 compact paperback, 7.5x7.5 photo book feel, 8.5x11 US letter.

Bert: So we're going to choose all sizes from both vendors, you think?

Sheri: That feels like a lot of options. Maybe more than we need. Unless it's not a big deal to have that many options — is it just as simple to have twenty versus five?

Bert: I think we want to skip the pocket. And I would think the 5x5 would be something people would do.

Sheri: That feels a bit small.

Bert: They're saying 7x7, 8x10, 10x8, and 12x12. The popular formats for photo albums are the small square. I think it's going to come down to price too.

Sheri: I think the only option that's not on there is 6x9.

Bert: So I've got right now: 6x9, 7x7, 8x10, 8.5x8.5 (the photo book square), and standard landscape 10x8 from Blurb.

Sheri: Yeah, I think that's good coverage. If we find people aren't utilizing it, we can change it. I feel like that's a good spread and distribution of options.

Bert: We'll make it where they can preview what it would look like. I'll try to get it to automate the layout now — we might need a layout editor, maybe version two.

Sheri: One of the sites I was on had a pretty detailed measurements/margins breakdown for how to make the PDF work well with the printing process. Would it be helpful if I sent you the link?

Bert: I have access to it. But if there's one that you've done some research on, it would be helpful as a basis, because I'm much happier when I'm borrowing other people's brains.

Sheri: I will get that sent to you. I understood about half of it, but apparently it gives you really good specs if you're trying to make it work.

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Sheri: Do you have time to help me register the domain?

Bert: Got 30 minutes till the kids show up.

Sheri: Do you want me to just share my screen with you?

[Screen share — Google Workspace DNS verification via Cloudflare. Manual verification method used, TXT record added. Verification successful.]

Sheri: The only other thing is I appear to no longer have access to Signal and all that. I tried to log in and it said I didn't have access to the admin page.

Bert: I'll fix that. Might've locked down the RLS, the row level security, and I bet that's what did it.

Sheri: I was so proud of myself for remembering where I'm supposed to go to find things, and then I couldn't get in. That was so sad. It's only taken me three months to figure out where to find things.

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Bert: I will send you a confirmation that we're good, and you can call me or I can call you.

Sheri: Will I see you this weekend?

Bert: I think so, but maybe not. Trey wants to announce the College Decoded work. We also have spring break — visiting my parents, taking the kids to the beach at St. Simons. I'm favoring the Saturday morning thing because that really does help me to not be a crazy person.

Sheri: When are y'all back in town?

Bert: Next Monday. But just call me or message me. I'll be working — it's a working vacation because I'm in startup mode. I want to make sure my clients' stuff works.

Sheri: Stop being a crazy person. I hope to see you soon.

Bert: Thank you Sheri. I'll let you know when this is ready to test.